Last night, I was talking to an established author who is helping out a couple friends who want to write a book. “They have a great story but they aren’t sure if they need an editor or a ghostwriter,” he said. That’s a pretty good question. If you’re an emerging thought leader and think you have a book in you, I’ll answer that question for you today.

First off, let’s get this straight. There are any number of services that will sell...

Being a great editor is hard. You must at once be naive and wise, omniscient and humble, impatient and implacable, sympathetic and uncompromising. You must think like a reader, like a writer, and like yourself.

Here are 10 vital strategies to master the contradictions of being a great editor.